Reuters published a news report last week, covering Primate scientist Jane Goodall’s voice that the race to grow crops for vehicle fuels is damaging rain forests in Asia, Africa and South America and adding to the emissions blamed for global warming.
“We’re cutting down forests now to grow sugarcane and palm oil for biofuels and our forests are being hacked into by so many interests that it makes them more and more important to save now,” Goodall said on the sidelines of the Clinton Global Initiative, former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s annual philanthropic meeting.
As new oil supplies become harder to find, many countries such as Brazil and Indonesia are racing to grow domestic sources of vehicle fuels, such as ethanol from sugarcane and biodiesel from palm nuts.The United Nations’ climate program considers the fuels to be low in carbon because growing the crops takes in heat-trapping gas carbon dioxide. But critics say demand for the fuels has led companies to cut down and burn forests in order to grow the crops, adding to heat-trapping emissions and leading to erosion and stress on ecosystems.
“Biofuel isn’t the answer to everything; it depends where it comes from,” she said. “All of this means better education on where fuels are coming from are needed.”
HEADLINE NEWS:
+ [26.09.07]: Reuters: Jane Goodall says biofuel crops hurt rain forests
+ Jane Goodall Institute
Filed under: Conservation | Tagged: biofuel, biomass, emissions, fuel, global warming, jane goodall, JGI, palm oil, rainforest, sugarcane
